Pearlware muffin with blue transfer print design

This small plate is decorated with a pattern called View of the Imperial Park at Gehol. The pattern shows a junk sailing a river with Chinese figures and building on the bank in the background. The scene is copied from John Barrow's Travels in China, published in 1806. The book includes engraved plates from a British diplomats' mission in China from 1737-1806. This pattern was probably introduced around 1820. Many British ceramic manufacturers at this time were copying decorative motifs found on Chinese porcelain (Coysh and Henrywood 1982:381).